LITMIR.BIZ

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common talk;

       Music and poesy use to quicken you;

       The mathematics and the metaphysics,

       Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you:

       No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en;

       In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

      LUCENTIO.

       Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise.

       If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore,

       We could at once put us in readiness,

       And take a lodging fit to entertain

       Such friends as time in Padua shall beget.

       But stay awhile; what company is this?

      TRANIO.

       Master, some show to welcome us to town.

       [Enter BAPTISTA, KATHERINA, BIANCA, GREMIO,and HORTENSIO.

       LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand aside.]

      BAPTISTA.

       Gentlemen, importune me no further,

       For how I firmly am resolv’d you know;

       That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter

       Before I have a husband for the elder.

       If either of you both love Katherina,

       Because I know you well and love you well,

       Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.

      GREMIO.

       To cart her rather: she’s too rough for me.

       There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife?

      KATHERINA.

       [To BAPTISTA] I pray you, sir, is it your will

       To make a stale of me amongst these mates?

      HORTENSIO.

       Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you,

       Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.

      KATHERINA.

       I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear;

       I wis it is not halfway to her heart;

       But if it were, doubt not her care should be

       To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,

       And paint your face, and use you like a fool.

      HORTENSIO.

       From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!

      GREMIO.

       And me, too, good Lord!

      TRANIO.

       Husht, master! Here’s some good pastime toward:

       That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.

      LUCENTIO.

       But in the other’s silence do I see

       Maid’s mild behaviour and sobriety.

       Peace, Tranio!

      TRANIO.

       Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill.

      BAPTISTA.

       Gentlemen, that I may soon make good

       What I have said,—Bianca, get you in:

       And let it not displease thee, good Bianca,

       For I will love thee ne’er the less, my girl.

      KATHERINA.

       A pretty peat! it is best

       Put finger in the eye, an she knew why.

      BIANCA.

       Sister, content you in my discontent.

       Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe:

       My books and instruments shall be my company,

       On them to look, and practise by myself.

      LUCENTIO.

       Hark, Tranio! thou mayst hear Minerva speak.

      HORTENSIO.

       Signior Baptista, will you be so strange?

       Sorry am I that our good will effects

       Bianca’s grief.

      GREMIO.

       Why will you mew her up,

       Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell,

       And make her bear the penance of her tongue?

      BAPTISTA.

       Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv’d.

       Go in, Bianca.

       [Exit BIANCA.]

      And for I know she taketh most delight

       In music, instruments, and poetry,

       Schoolmasters will I keep within my house

       Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio,

       Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such,

       Prefer them hither; for to cunning men

       I will be very kind, and liberal

       To mine own children in good bringing up;

       And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay;

       For I have more to commune with Bianca.

       [Exit.]

      KATHERINA.

       Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not?

       What! shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike,

       I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha!

       [Exit.]

      GREMIO.

       You may go to the devil’s dam: your gifts are so good here’s none will hold you. Their love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake’s dough on both sides. Farewell: yet, for the love I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her father.

      HORTENSIO. So will I, Signior Gremio: but a word, I pray. Though the nature of our quarrel yet never brooked parle, know now, upon advice, it toucheth us both,—that we may yet again have access to our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca’s love,—to labour and effect one thing specially.

      GREMIO.

       What’s that, I pray?

      HORTENSIO.

       Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.

      GREMIO.

       A husband! a devil.

      HORTENSIO.

       I say, a husband.

      GREMIO.

       I say, a devil. Thinkest thou, Hortensio, though her fatherbe very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

      HORTENSIO. Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough.

      GREMIO.

       I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this condition: to be whipp’d at the high cross every morning.

      HORTENSIO. Faith, as you say, there’s small choice in rotten apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it shall be so far forth friendly maintained, till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband, we set his youngest free for a husband, and then have to’t afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, Signior Gremio?

      GREMIO.

      

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